Dream Report, Wingco

Had a dream that Neil Gaiman had decided that for the next little while, he was only going to write stories about RAF pilots – and these weren’t supernatural or AU, and while clearly inspired by Capt. W. E. Johns they were more in the way of sincere tribute rather than parody (even affectionate parody). They were just completely straightforward kid/YA-friendly adventure stories about flying.

He’d also started a campaign to encourage other writers to try their hand at this sort of thing – he called it “category fiction” as opposed to “genre” – stories in which things don’t always have to be about other things.

Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Reposted (via cucumberseed), and with an additional link to futurismic’s comments on this issue from earlier this year ; (and the all-too-prescient SF story they published the year before.


Originally posted by gabrieelabelle at Mississippi Personhood Amendment

Okay, so I don't usually do this, but this is an issue near and dear to me and this is getting very little no attention in the mainstream media.

Mississippi is voting on November 8th on whether to pass Amendment 26, the "Personhood Amendment". This amendment would grant fertilized eggs and fetuses personhood status.

Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages. This is not a good thing.

Jackson Women's Health Organization is the only place women can get abortions in the entire state, and they are trying to launch a grassroots movement against this amendment. This doesn't just apply to Mississippi, though, as Personhood USA, the group that introduced this amendment, is trying to introduce identical amendments in all 50 states.

What's more, in Mississippi, this amendment is expected to pass. It even has Mississippi Democrats, including the Attorney General, Jim Hood, backing it.

The reason I'm posting this here is because I made a meager donation to the Jackson Women's Health Organization this morning, and I received a personal email back hours later - on a Sunday - thanking me and noting that I'm one of the first "outside" people to contribute.

So if you sometimes pass on political action because you figure that enough other people will do something to make a difference, make an exception on this one. My RSS reader is near silent on this amendment. I only found out about it through a feminist blog. The mainstream media is not reporting on it.

If there is ever a time to donate or send a letter in protest, this would be it.

What to do?

- Read up on it. Wake Up, Mississippi is the home of the grassroots effort to fight this amendment. Daily Kos also has a thorough story on it.

- If you can afford it, you can donate at the site's link.

- You can contact the Democratic National Committee to see why more of our representatives aren't speaking out against this.

- Like this Facebook page to help spread awareness.

Evil Nails Slain Live

No, not *quite* a palindrome.

I varnished my nails on the way home today - green_trilobite reacts gets headaches from the fumes, so I decided to do it in the open air while waiting at various bus/streetcar stops.

Naturally this meant that for much of the trip I had incompletely painted nails, and I was reminded that once, in high school, someone claimed that having one single nail varnished was a way of indicating one's religious affiliation as "Satanist." I never found out *why* this was supposed to be more pleasing to the Dark Lord than a full manicure, though I suspect the real logic was that parents would be less likely to spot one painted nail than ten.

Anyone else ever hear this one, or was it purely a New Brunswick legend?

ETA - quick search suggests it's a rock'n'roll thing - the people claiming it's satanic appear to be the same people claiming that D&D is satanic.